59

Angela Varesano
6/9/72
Frank Zahay

He was born in Stierdorf, Austria. Both of his parents were also born there. His father was Superintendant in the mines at Buck Mountain.???

In 1912 he started work in Eckley. Worked in the strippings.

Back Street was called Irish Street because they lived there. Welsh and English lived on Main Street (Big Street).

Owl Hole was the name for #7 slope. It is in the valley past the Catholic Church.

the Coxe's owned the DS&S RR. Drifton, Oneida and Stockton were Coxe owned mining towns.

His first occupation was a spotter for the RR and the Buck Mt. strippings He also was a sand dryer (dryed sand over the railroad boiler - used to sprinkle sand over the track to stop train.) When there was an opening he took a job with the mining company as a carpenter. He worked in the carshops - fixed railroad cars and did repair work on the houses owned by the company. He remembers whe the company would not allow the people to connect the shantys to the house. In the 1920's and before that.

In 1912 he moved into his parents house. The Falatko family lived in the house before that.

He changed work again during WWI - he was a fireman on the railroad. He had a draft deferment. After the war he worked down in the mines putting up timber and building platforms. It was the only job available. Later he got a job digging out coal. He worked 30 years in the mines before they shut down.

Rates in mines. When they found a wide vein they used to leave columns 20 to 25' thick of coal. When the columns began to crumble from increased rock pressure the rats would warn of impending danger by running out of the mine.

He worked putting timber up in a mine. In a gangway they placed the timber vertically along the sides and horizontally near the roof. Props were used if the roof was too high. Props are pieces of wood planking shoved between the roof and the timbers.

Before his time the Irish had control of mine labor. He heard old time Slovak miners tell about the Mollie Maguire organization. They abused the Slavic immigrants just for kicks, for no reason. When he was 6 or 7 years old he remembers hearing an old man talk about when the Mollies broke into his home and his wife saved him by embracing him and not letting him go. The Mollies left.